Military
career

Halpenny served in the Royal Air Force Police in
specialist units, often overseas,[2]
but after being wounded, and instead of coming out of the RAF, he
moved across to the RAF Police (RAFPD) on Special
Security Duties (Atomic & Chemical Weapons) SS, and was part of
a special RAF military police unit on Special Duties
and in the Nuclear Division,[2]
that was responsible for the protection of the nuclear weapons that
the V-bombers were to use in time of war.[3]

Literary
career

In the 1950s whilst in the RAF he was wounded and had to undergo
several operations, in which his life was in the balance as
dedicated surgeons fought to not only save his hand and arm, but
also his life. In rehabilitation he started writing and research as
a hobby, and though he stayed in the RAF and was to serve on
Special Duties[4] and in
the Nuclear
Division, his hobby turned into a profession in later years after
leaving the forces.[5]

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Early
years

In the early period of his writing career he started out by
writing love stories and cowboy stories for the American market
under pen names. Then because of his specialist knowledge of the
Royal Air Force, he focused on military history, especially RAF
History of World War Two, often with deep insights, facts and
personal human interest stories.[6] At one
time he was writing articles for up to 14 military journals around
the world when he was approached by the publishers Patrick Stephens
to do the Airfield books due to his vast knowledge and
authority.[5]

Military
history

When he researched the British RAF airfield histories, particularly those
of London, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. He
found that public
records held very little if any information at all, so he had
to do all the research himself going back to the very beginning.
This helped to unearth a rich source of information, which others
have since used, but set Bruce Halpenny as an undisputed RAF
expert.[7] For his
research on the airfields, Bruce interviewed 1,400 people,
researched records and letters and travelled thousands of
miles.[8]
Such was Bruce’s dedication to the history of the Airfields that he
visited each and every airfield, (some of which he had prior
knowledge of from his military days), to ensure accuracy.[9]

His books quickly became essential reference books for all
aviation historians.[10]
Virtually all of the information was new, in the sense that it
hadn’t appeared in the dozens of books which had been written about
the RAF, new too were the many photographs that were just a
selection of the thousands he collected and commissioned.[11] Such
were his photographs and uniqueness, and the way that he used them,
that in the opening chapters of his book Action Stations 2
Wartime Military Airfields of Lincolnshire and the East
Midlands, were a selection of control tower photos – this was
the first time this had been done in any book.[12]

Ghosts and
mysteries

Halpenny had been writing ghost stories in the 1960 and encountering
ghost stories in his exhaustive research into airfield histories,
when in 1984, he decided they should form the subject of a special
book, and so started to add to, and research his "ghost-mystery"
files about abandoned airfields that murmur and whisper with
ghosts.[14] Bruce
Halpenny had by 1984 become acknowledged as not only a respected Britishmilitary historian, expert in Airfield
histories, but also the expert in RAFGhosts, especially surrounding
Airfields.[15]Ghost Stations
was born, and in 1986 the first book was published and proved a
best seller as it recounts how, "headless airmen and other spectres
have appeared in control towers and other Service buildings
throughout the country".[16] Such
was demand that a second book entitled, Aaargh! was
published with over 30 stories, one of which was The eerie
mystery of Lightning 894.[17]
Aaargh!, was later to become Ghost Stations 2 as more books later
followed over the years and became the cult series of Ghost Stations books.

Halpenny's unique knowledge and position means he is also known
for accessing and finding information generally closed to the
general public and media, especially MoD material
concerning UFO's.[18]

Halpenny has always maintained that all Airfields are
haunted.[19] Over
the years he had uncovered a wealth of material about ghostly
experiences on wartime airfields.[15]
"The evidence of ghosts keeps popping up and is so rich that it
cannot be ignored," he said[15]
and he has little doubt why airfields are such a magnet for ghosts,
"You have to remember that 55,000 men of bomber command died while
operating from Britain in World War Two, and almost all of them met
a violent end, so it isn't surprising that dozens of earthbound
spirits have been left behind."[15]

Games
inventor

Charities, causes and
animal rights

Halpenny has always been vocal in his campaigns for numerous
organisations and causes, especially concerning veterans, war
widows, wounded and invalided servicemen & women. He has also
helped schools[21]
and children's charities such as Mencap, in campaigning and highlighting issues,
and even in one case when he donated a vintage bottle of wine to
help raise funds. The bottle was unique in that it was the last
bottle remaining after the Nazis had plundered the cellars of
families living in an ItalianAbruzzo village in World War Two. The author's uncle was a Canadiantank commander whose tank was the first to liberate the village and was
also the first tank to enter Ortona in the Battle of Ortona.[22] The
bottle was given to the author, as he lived in Abruzzo[23]
and his research work had taken to that area.[24]
Bruce Halpenny said on donating the bottle:

"Because the bottle is unique, it seemed a waste to just drink
it without using it to gain some benefit for others."